Untold Secrets

Chapter 13

Time

Past
You hold dear
Present
Is near and clear
Future
You fear
Time is a wave
No one can control
But what if it is
Not that complicated after all?

We're on our way to school and today I have butterflies in my stomach for another reason.
How will Daemon react at seeing me? What will change now? Will he kiss me again?
Cor looks at me and says, laughing "Stop looking like a love stuck film heroine. I don't even recognise you."
"Shut up! I'm not looking like them."
"Yes, you are"
"No, I'm not."
"Liar"
"You are a liar"
She takes out her tongue, I do the same and then we start laughing.
"It's good to see you happy, Hec." Cor says after a few moments
"Yeah, after Gaia's disappearance this is the first time I feel a bit alive. That doesn't mean my main focus is not Gaia anymore. I want to find her as soon as possible. In fact, today I'm going to start controlling my powers with Daemon."
"Today I'm going to my Aunt's place again and I hope I will learn to control my powers as well. Being the only one with 4 elements is great, because I'm more powerful than others but it's also scary. Who knows what these powers are or what effects they'll have on me."
"Yeah, I have some abilities that can literally send me into an another world. What if I can't control it and get stuck there or worse?" I've thought about it last night. I didn't know anything about these powers, much less control them.
"Don't worry, I'm sure Daemon won't let anything happen to you. Just don't try anything alone for now."
"Not planning to."
"Don't worry about Gaia either, Hec. I'm sure she's fine."
"Eye said she's weaker each and everyday, Cor. What are they doing to her?" I ask with a nod in my throat.
"I don't know but we're going to find out and we're going to make them pay for it, whoever 'they' are."
"Yeah, we are."
I need to keep myself together. Gaia needs me and I can't fall apart now.
I'm going to bring you back, Gaia. No matter what.

After two hours of boring lessons, I'm ready to shoot myself in the head.
Who invented these boring subjects? I'm sure it was someone who hated students very much!
I didn't see Daemon anywhere and was a bit worried. I texted him to know where he was and he said we would come at school in the third period.
So obviously, the lessons had been much longer and boring than usual as I couldn't wait for them to finish.
During the 10 minutes break I go outside and look around. Daemon is nowhere to be seen and I get irritated.
"Looking for someone?" A voice says from behind me.
I turn around and Daemon looks at me with an amused smile.
"Where were you?" Damn, I didn't want to sound like a clingy girlfriend.
"Here and there." Enjoying irritating me.
I decide not to give him the satisfaction of seeing his provocations have effect.
"Whatever. When are we going to start controlling my powers?"
"We can do it right now if you want. I can take you at my place and we can start."
He gives me a sensual smile.
At his place?
Nope, we're so not going to control my powers at his place. Even though my body is imploring me to say yes, I have to think about Gaia first.
"We can do it somewhere else."
"Afraid of being alone with me at my place, Caty?"
"In your dreams, Princeling. You don't scare me."
Suddenly he disappears and appears an inch from my face. I shriek and take a step back. "Stop doing that!"
"Why? You said I don't scare you." He starts laughing.
Thank God no students come here usually or else some innocent kid would have had a heart attack today.
"You're crazy."
"Maybe." He smirks.
Damn that dimple on his left cheek, it easily makes me crazy.
"Daemon, we need to focus."
I hate bringing him back to reality, but I have to. If your romantic skills don't improve Hec, you're going to stay single your whole life.
"We can go to that abandoned factory where we had questioned the Skiihhiirr. No one goes there."
"Fine, we'll go there after school?"
"Actually I was serious. I think we should go there right now. Time is precious and who wants to stay at school anyway, right?"
Well I had P.E. now and anything was better than it.
"Alright. Let's go then. I'll just text Cor and let her know."
"Okay." He waits for me to finish sending the text and takes my hand. "Ready?"
"Uhm..we aren't going with your Porche or motorcycle?"
"No, it's faster this way."
"Okay." I don't think I'd ever get used to it.
I feel my feet leave the ground and I'm in that vortex again. This time it's not terrorising as I know what to expect.
A few seconds later, we land on the floor of the abandoned factory.
Daemon lets go of my hand and switches on the lights. There's only one small window in this room, so there isn't a lot of sunlight in here.
"Okay Caty, so let's start with how these powers work. Each and everyone has different abilities and different ways of controlling it. Your emotions effect your powers a lot. If you are angry, your powers are stronger. If you are scared, your powers can be weaker. You have to know that you are the one who controls the powers and not the other way around. If you let your powers control you, well it doesn't end well."
Great. No pressure.
"My friend, the Traveller I had talked about, has told me some things about his abilities. He said he can see the walls between the worlds, strong and unbreakable that no one can go through. But he can also see the doors. There are a lot of them and you have to find the one you are looking for. If you are powerful, you find the one you're looking for easily. Once you've gone through a door, it's even easier to find it. He said it's different for each Traveller. Some see curtains instead of doors, for example. You just have to find out how you're going to see it."
Oh God. How was I supposed to 'see' it?
"Caty, is everything clear?"
I smile and say "Yeah" even though I didn't understand anything.
Universal technique used by anyone who doesn't want to look like a fool.
Daemon looks amused as if he knows I'm lying.
"To reach other worlds you have to control space and time. Let's start with this. You already slowed the time once before, now we have to try to do it on purpose."
Alright. I did it before, so it can't be that difficult right?
"Time is just a perception we have. It's like a wave, you can control its length. Take it higher and it'll get faster. Take it lower and it'll get slower. It's all around you, you can feel it and even see it once you open your mind to it."
I try to concentrate and look around trying to 'see' or 'feel' it. After a few moments I look at Daemon and say " I don't feel anything."
Why can't controlling time be easy? There should be a guide with all the information on it.
Daemon comes closer to me "You have to open your mind to it, Caty."
He goes behind my back and puts his hands on my shoulders.
"Close your eyes" He whispers in my ear.
I do as he asks and suddenly feel my heart beat race. Why does he have to be so close to me? I can't focus.
"You don't have to think or focus. Just feel"
His hands slide down my arms and I have goose bumps.
"Can you feel my hands, Caty?" He whispers in my ear again.
"Hmmhmm"
I can feel him smile against my ear.
"Now feel what surrounds you too. Feel the air, the floor, everything."
I do as he asks and I can feel the tiles of the floor, a small breeze coming through the window, the smell of oil of unused machines. I feel all of this and it's like my senses get sharper. I can smell Daemon, something dark and forbidden just as I've thought the first time. I can hear him breathing behind me and I can feel his warm hands on my skin.
"Now imagine there's a wave all around us. Give it a colour. Imagine it moving and changing length repeatedly."
I do exactly what he says. I give it a light-green colour and imagine it's moving slowly around us.
"Now open your eyes"
When I open my eyes, I can actually see the wave. It's light green and it's surrounding us.
Wow.
"Can you see it?"
"Yeah..it's beautiful" I whisper
"Touch a part of it and try to change its shape. Take it lower."
I take the one closest to me. I reach out with my hand and touch it. It's what I imagine touching clouds feels like. Nothing solid, just air. I 'push' it down and strangely, it obeys. It goes down and the whole wave goes down with it.
"Stay here" Daemon goes towards a table takes a paper on it and throws it on the floor. It falls slowly, as if in slow motion. I push the wave upwards and the paper falls faster.
I let the wave go, surprised and thrilled by what I'd just done.
"That was..incredibile" I say with a big smile.
I had just changed the time, I was feeling fucking awesome right now.
"It was." Daemon says smilingly. "You are powerful, Caty. I don't think Travellers learn so easily to control time. My friend had done it after a long time."
"Mom said my powers are stronger thanks to my father's abilities. He's an Amplifier so I guess that's the reason."
"Yeah, maybe. I haven't heard of a Traveller marrying a Wielder before so I guess it's possible."
"Why is it unusual?"
"My world is very rigid. There's a hierarchy everyone has to follow. Wielders are of a lower class than Travellers, who are one of the most important classes. They are rare and are given a lot of importance. Almost like a royal member."
"That reminds me a lot of human history. We also had hierarchies and married people of our social class but thankfully humanity has made much progress since that time. It was wrong, you know. Everyone should be treated equally."
" I know. There are a lot of worlds and each influences the others unconsciously. When humans decided to be more democratic, it was thanks to Grihar, where the habitants lived the same way as the others. The Grihirs are all the same, actually. Same lifestyle, same tastes, same names too usually. Obviously humans didn't imitate them, they just changed their thoughts a bit. Rosira is a world that has always been ruled by Queens and it influenced the human world as women asked for more rights and more freedom. Even the fairytales are influenced by the Fae, shown as mythical creatures due to their otherworldly beauty but trust me I've met some and they are just arrogant bastards. It's always been this way. What humans call 'demons' are habitants of the darkest worlds, so people fear them. That fear has been passed through different religions. That's why human religions talk about Hell and Paradise."
"Wait if demons exist, do angels exist too? And God?" I ask only half-kidding. I imagine God, as a normal person living in a paradise-like world and sending Daemon a text.
Invitation from God: Why don't you come  Saturday at 5 p.M. for a cup of tea? We can discuss about how I created the human world and how many prayers in different languages they dedicate me.
"Well there are some creatures who have the characteristics of what you call 'angels'. They are pure and they always wear white. They have the ability to fly as well. As for God, I don't know if He exists. I've never met Him, but that doesn't mean anything. I haven't been to all the worlds in existence, you know."
"That's..too much to process. Does human world influence the others too?"
"Yes, a few worlds became less violent after Gandhi and others like him fought against the violence, for example. During the American revolution, other worlds had also started being interested in traveling. It's all a complete circle, one world influences the other without knowing it."
"How do you know all this?"
"Because our world is one of the most powerful worlds in existence. The Travellers have always given us power and more information on the other worlds."
"So you guys use the Travellers?"
"No, they are very well-treated. We don't go through different worlds to control them, just due to curiosity."
"How is that possible? You never thought of staying somewhere else? No King ever wanted to extend his rule? I don't believe it. Human or not, I'm sure everyone can have that temptation."
"Sometimes I thought I would like to live somewhere else, but I couldn't. I am the Prince and I can't leave my world. As for the other rulers, they never tried to conquer other worlds so I guess they were never tempted to do so or maybe they weren't able to. My dad, the King, has never talked about anything like this either. I think he's happy with what he has and doesn't want to ruin the balance either."
"Well, that's good. Humans don't have supernatural powers but they aren't weak. They'll also defend themselves as best as they can if anything like that happens."
"Let's just hope nothing like that happens. It would be a disaster, for each and every world."
The only thought made me nervous. I really hoped that day would never come.
"Enough of this serious talk, now. You did really well today Caty, so I think you deserve a gift." Daemon says getting closer to me.
"What gift?"
He gives me a mysterious smile. "Well, that's a surprise."
"Oh stop creating suspense. I hate waiting, I have zero patience."
"That's why I love provoking you so much"
He says smirking
I push at his shoulder jokingly, but he takes my hand and pulls me to his chest.
"Dick."
He starts laughing and I can't stop the smile playing on my face.
Then he lowers his head and nips on my neck, making me shiver.
"Are you free tonight?" He asks, rubbing his nose on the space between my neck and my shoulder. My hands on his shoulders tighten.
How did my hands end up there?
"Are you asking me out?"
"Maybe"
"Then maybe I'm free."
He smiles against my neck, making me curl my toes.
"I'll come pick you up at 8 p.M., will you be alone at home at that hour?"
"Yeah, Mom and Dad will be at work. Where are we going?"
"That's a surprise." He says moving his lips from my neck to my throat and going towards my jaw.
I make an impatient sound and he laughs against my skin.
"Patience, Caty. I promise it'll be worth the wait."
"I sure hope so, Princeling. Or else I'll take my claws out."
He laughs again and slowly makes his way towards my lips.
"Caty, Caty.. you make me go crazy, you know that?
Before I can answer he puts his lips on mine and the kiss makes me forget everything.
You too make me go crazy, Princeling. You too.